Ethel's Song

by Barbara Krasner

Genres: Young Adult; YA Historical Fiction

Synopsis

Convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage for the Soviet Union against the United States, Ethel Rosenberg shares the story of her beliefs, loves, secrets, betrayals, and injustices in this compelling YA novel in verse.

In 1953, Ethel Rosenberg, a devoted wife and loving mother, faces the electric chair. People say she’s a spy, a Communist, a red. How did she get here? In a series of heart-wrenching poems, Ethel tells her story. The child of Jewish immigrants, Ethel Greenglass grows up on New York City’s Lower East Side. She dreams of being an actress and a singer but finds romance and excitement in the arms of the charming Julius Rosenberg. Both are ardent supporters of rights for workers, but are they spies? Who is passing atomic secrets to the Soviets? Why does everyone seem out to get them?
 
This first book for young readers about Ethel Rosenberg is a fascinating portrait of a commonly misunderstood figure from American history, and vividly relates a story that continues to have relevance today.

Release date: September 13, 2022

Publisher: Calkins Creek

Print pages: 272

Sample

NUMBER 64
In a nondescript tenement
on a nondescript street,
we live behind Papa’s sewing machine
repair shop. He bends over his machine
as poverty bends over us.
Machine shops line the street
like tight stitches in a seam,
leaning on each other
to make a single straight pattern of income.


WHEN I SING, WHEN I ACT
I become anyone I want.
I go anywhere I please.
I say anything that comes to me.
I make words dance.
When I sing, when I act,
I am in charge, I make the rules.
I rise above this ugly Lower East Side,
the tenement buildings
that fold into each other,
The Yiddish babble
of fish for sale.
On stage with an opera company,
I am Barbarina, singing soprano
in Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro.
After my aria, audiences erupt
in rambunctious applause.
On stage with a repertory troupe,
I am Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Audiences detonate in waves of cheers.
They say, “Boy, can she act? And how!”

SONG FOR THE PICKET LINE
Every Saturday, Ohrbach’s
department store workers carry signs
Unfair labor!
On strike against meager wages
against increased working hours
at the same pay
outside its department store
on East 14th Street.
Every Saturday, Ohrbach’s
workers hope they can make a difference.
Every Saturday, people
think workers standing up for their rights
is a bad thing. They hurl
Communist labels at workers.
Every Saturday people yell,
“Marxists!” “Reds!” at the workers.
Every Saturday is Ohrbach’s
Day when police arrest the workers
but this July Saturday
I serenade the picketers:
Don’t despair!
Carry on!